As part of SAC's plans
to disburse its B-52 bombers, the 4135th Strategic Wing was established at
Eglin Dec 1, 1958. It's 301st Bomb Squadron flew B-52G. On
February 1, 1963 it became the 39th Bombardment Wing. both units maintained airborne alert, ground alert, and
participated in numerous exercises. the 39th was inactivated on 25 Jun
1965 when its 301st Bomb Squadron was transferred to Barksdale AFB in
Bossier City, Louisiana.
Eglin has played a prominent role in airpower history. In
1931, personnel of the Army Air Corps Tactical School (Maxwell Field, Alabama)
looking for a site for a bombing and gunnery range, saw the potential of the
sparsely populated forested areas surrounding Valparaiso, Florida, and the vast
expanse of the adjacent Gulf of Mexico. A local businessman and airplane buff,
James E. Plew, saw the potential of a military payroll to boost the
depression-stricken economy in the local area. He leased to the City of
Valparaiso 137 acres on which an airport was established in 1933, and in 1934,
Plew offered the U.S. government a donation of 1,460 contiguous acres for the
bombing and gunnery base. This leasehold became the headquarters for the
Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base activated on 14 June 1935 under the command
of Captain Arnold H. Rich. On 4 August 1937, the base was redesignated Eglin
Field in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Frederick I. Eglin, U.S. Air Corps, killed
on 1 January 1937 in an aircraft crash.
With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939 and
President Roosevelt's call for an expansion of the Army Air Corps, General Henry
H. "Hap" Arnold ordered the establishment of a proving ground for aircraft
armament. Eglin was selected for the testing mission, and on 27 June 1940, the
U.S. Forestry Service ceded to the War Department the Choctawhatchee National
Forest, consisting of some 384,000 acres. In 1941, the Air Corps Proving Ground
was activated, and Eglin became the site for gunnery training for Army Air
Forces fighter pilots, as well as a major testing center for aircraft,
equipment, and tactics. In March 1942, the base served as one of the sites for
Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle to prepare his B-25 crews for their raid
against Tokyo.
In addition to testing all new aircraft and their
serial modifications, the Proving Ground Command, established at Eglin April
1942, found the isolation and immensity of the ranges especially well-suited for
special tasks. For example, in 1944, personnel developed the tactics and
techniques to destroy German missile installations being built to support V-1
buzz-bomb attacks on England.
By the end of the war, Eglin had made a
recognizable contribution to the effectiveness of the American air operations in
Europe and the Pacific and continued to maintain a role in the research,
development, and testing of air armament. Eglin also became a pioneer in missile
development when, in early 1946, the First Experimental Guided Missiles Group
was activated to develop the techniques for missile launching and handling;
establish training programs; and monitor the development of a drone or pilotless
aircraft capability to support the Atomic Energy Commission tests, Operation
CROSSROADS, at Eniwetok. On 13 January 1947, the Guided Missiles Group received
nationwide publicity by conducting a successful drone flight from Eglin to
Washington, D.C., in a simulated bombing mission.
Both as a reaction to the Soviet atomic explosion in
1949 and in recognition that research and development had lagged in the years of
lower priority to operational concerns, the Air Force, in early 1950,
established the Air Research and Development Command (later Air Force Systems
Command). The following year, the Air Research and Development Command
established the Air Force Armament Center at Eglin, which, for the first time,
brought development and testing together. After the start of the Korean War in
1950, test teams moved to the combat theater for testing in actual combat. They
numbered among their accomplishments improved air-to-air tactics and improved
techniques for close air support. On 1 December 1957, the Air Force combined the
Air Proving Ground Command and the Air Force Armament Center to form the Air
Proving Ground Center.
The Center built the highly-instrumented Eglin Gulf
Test Range and for the next few years, served as a major missile test center for
weapons such as the BOMARC, Matador, GAM-72 "Quail," and GAM-77 "Hound Dog."
Durling the early 1960's, as the Southeast
Asia conflict increased, Eglin was home of the Air Force Special Forces
insurgency units - the Air Force Green Berets. There was also emphasis on
conventional weapons and the responsibilities at Eglin grew. On 1 August 1968,
the Air Proving Ground Center was redesignated the Armament Development and Test
Center to centralize responsibility for research, development, test and
evaluation, and initial acquisition of nonnuclear munitions for the Air Force.
On 1 October 1979, the Center was given division status. The Armament Division,
redesignated Munitions Systems Division on 15 March 1989, placed into production
the precision-guided munitions for the laser, television, and infrared guided
bombs; two anti-armor weapon systems; and an improved hard target weapon used in
Operation DESERT STORM during the Persian Gulf War. The Division was also
responsible for developing the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM),
an Air Force-led joint project with the U.S. Navy.
In addition to its development and testing
mission, Eglin also served as the training site for the Son Tay Raiders in 1970,
the group that made the daring attempt to rescue American POWs from a North
Vietnamese prison camp. In 1975, the installation served as one of four main
U.S. Vietnamese Refugee Processing Centers, where base personnel housed and
processed more than 10,000 Southeast Asian refugees at the Auxiliary Field Two
"Tent City." Eglin again became an Air Force refugee resettlement center
processing over 10,000 Cubans who fled to the U.S. between April and May of
1980.
On 11 July 1990, the Munitions Systems Division was
redesignated the Air Force Development Test Center. During the 1990s, the Center
supported test and evaluation for the development of nonnuclear Air Force
armament including next generation precision-guided weapons; operational
training for armament systems; and test and evaluation of command, control,
communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) aerospace navigation and
guidance systems.
As part of the Air Forces' strategic plan to
guide the service into the 21st Century, on 1 October 1998, the Air Force
Development Test Center became the Air Force Materiel Command's center for air
armament. As one of AFMC's product centers, AFDTC was renamed the Air Armament
Center (AAC). The Center is responsible for development, acquisition, testing,
deployment, and sustainment of all air-delivered weapons. The AAC applies
advanced technology, engineering, and programming efficiencies across the entire
product life cycle to provide superior combat capability. The Center plans,
directs, and conducts test and evaluation of U.S. and allied air armament,
navigation/guidance systems, and command and control (C 2) systems. It operates
two Air Force installations, providing host support to Eglin and Kirtland AFBs,
and supports the largest single base mobility commitment in the Air Force. AAC
accomplishes its mission through four components: The Armament Product
Directorate (Eglin), 46th Test Wing (Eglin), 96th Air Base Wing (Eglin), and
377th Air Base Wing (Kirtland). In 1999, precision-guided munitions proved their
effectiveness in Operation ALLIED FORCE. During the 78-day air operation,
precision munitions destroyed numerous targets with unparalleled accuracy,
resulting in minimum collateral damage, and no U.S. casualties of war.